Staff Compensation Partner (Hybrid-San Diego, CA)

***Please note, that all applicants applying for US job openings must be legally authorized to work in the United States.***

Our Customer is a business and financial software company that develops and sells financial, accounting, and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants, and individuals. They are laser-focused on their customers, live and breathe innovation, and champion those who dare to dream. Their Mission is powering prosperity around the world. They do it by attracting the world’s top talent, bringing vital partners into their global platform, and leaving the world a better place through exceptional corporate citizenship.

We are seeking a Staff Compensation Partner, Expert Compensation on a contract basis to support our Customer’s business needs.

This role is hybrid in San Diego, CA - 3 full days in office per week (typically Tues - Thurs).

Location: San Diego, CA

Team: Global Rewards – Customer Success

Reports to: Principal Compensation Partner

About the role

Client's Customer Success business runs on a large, seasonal expert workforce whose compensation needs shift with the business cycle — hiring surges, periodic offboarding and rehire at scale, and continuous governance of pay programs in between. This role owns the compensation design work behind that cycle — market pricing, job architecture, incentive design, and the pay programs that make the annual and mid-year cycles effective — built in close partnership with HRBPs and business leaders so the programs actually solve what they need solved.

This is a design-and-deliver seat. You'll inherit live programs — market pricing, the annual merit cycle, mid-year promotion and adjustment, job architecture for tax expert roles, and the large-scale rehire process — and you'll be expected to evaluate what's working, redesign what isn't, and partner across Tech, Programs, and HRBPs to deliver what's next — not just keep the existing programs running.

What you'll own

• Compensation program design - Design and evolve the core compensation programs for the expert workforce: market pricing methodology, job architecture for tax and bookkeeping expert roles, incentive and pay-for-performance structures, and the annual merit and mid-year adjustment cycles. You own the design decisions behind these programs, not just the calendar that runs them.
• Business and HR partnership - Work directly with HRBPs and Customer Success leaders to understand what the business needs from its compensation programs, then translate that into solutions — pay structures, incentive mechanics, and policy — that hold up at scale.
• Compensation advisory — Serve as the go-to compensation expert for HRBPs and leaders, answering complex pay questions and explaining the reasoning behind program design choices, not just the policy itself.
• Program governance — Make sure broad-based compensation programs run compliantly and consistently across a large, distributed, seasonal workforce, and evolve governance as programs change.
• Op-mech and stakeholder management — Keep Tech, Programs, and HRBPs aligned through recurring operating mechanisms, and manage the cross-functional dependencies that come with designing and rolling out compensation programs at scale.
• Process and tooling improvement — Identify where legacy, manual processes limit scale (especially in the rehire and merit cycles) and partner with Tech and Programs to modernize them, including through AI and automation.

What you bring to the table

• 8+ years of progressive compensation experience, with demonstrated ownership of program design — not just execution — across base pay, incentive/variable pay, and job architecture.
• Deep fluency in core compensation craft: market pricing and benchmarking, job evaluation and leveling, pay structure design, and incentive plan design.
• A track record of advising senior HR and business leaders on compensation strategy, and translating ambiguous business needs into workable pay solutions.
• Experience designing or redesigning compensation programs for a large or distributed workforce; experience with seasonal, hourly, or high-volume populations is a plus given the nature of Client's Expert Network.
• Strong analytical skills — comfortable building compensation models and using data to test and defend program design choices.
• Comfort operating as both designer and partner: able to run point on the technical craft while building trust with HRBPs, Finance, and Tech/Programs stakeholders.
• A bias toward modernizing legacy compensation processes with automation and AI tools, with examples of having done so.
• Sharp written and verbal communication — able to brief senior stakeholders crisply and manage ambiguity without needing every decision pre-made

We offer a competitive salary range for this position. Most candidates who join our team are hired at the median of this range, ensuring fair and equitable compensation based on experience and qualifications.

Contractor benefits are available through our 3rd Party Employer of Record (Available upon completion of waiting period for eligible engagements) Benefits include: Medical, Dental, Vision, 401k.

An Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.